Mostaccioli-Italian Christmas Spice Cookies
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons cocoa powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup finely ground almonds (I used unblanched slivers)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest 1 large orange
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp baking powder
1 stick cold unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1/3 cup sweet wine or vino cotto (You could also use water or dry red wine. I used 1/3 cup Martini Rossi Vermouth.)
Icing
One 1 pound box confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
Servings: 24
Ingredients
- Cookies
- 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup finely ground almonds I used unblanched slivers
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- grated zest 1 large orange
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1/3 cup sweet wine or vino cotto You could also use water or dry red wine. I used 1/3 cup Martini Rossi Vermouth.
- Icing
- One 1 pound box confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, pulse the almonds and sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Add the orange zest, flour cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves and pulse several times to mix. Cut the butter into 12 pieces and add to the work bowl. Pulse until the butter is mixed in (about 20-25 times).
- Ad the eggs and wine; pulse until the dough is evenly moistened, tough it probably will form one ball. Allow to stand for 1 minute to absorb the liquid, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. *I could not fit all the ingredients in my food processor. See recipe note above.
- Scrape the dough onto an oiled work surface and roll into a log, 12 inches long. Cut the log into six pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch cylinder, flatten slightly the palm of your hand, then cut each 12-inch cylinder diagonally into ten or eleven pieces and place the pieces on pans about 1 inch apart. Place the pans in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 300 degrees. Bake the cookies about 10-14 minutes, or until firm and light golden.
- Icing:
- Whisk the confectioners’ sugar with the water and orange juice. Add the water a little at a time. If it is too thick, add a little more water a tablespoon at a time.
- Transfer the cookies to a rack and drizzle on the icing. I did two coats of the icing drizzle. The original recipe says to dunk the cookies in the icing. I wanted to see a little bit of the cookie color. Add some sprinkles.